When Is My Mom Coming Back?
by 191615311
Summary: "She's just late, sometimes she's busy." He kept insisting. She'd never been late to pick him up before. Not once. Early, sometimes, but never late. And now she was over an hour late.


Written for the prompt:  
Send me "Don't chase the rabbit" and your muse will be shown a random memory from my muse's past.

Originally posted on my RP blog.

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A small, black haired boy half-jogged in circles around a bench in front of a pre-school building. It had let out an hour ago and he was still there, he had been waiting inside but eventually he'd gotten restless and they'd allowed him to go out. He was a well-behaved child and they didn't expect any trouble from him, or any attempts to bolt. It also helped to have him out of the way while they were frantically trying to get ahold of someone from his family. His mother was supposed to pick him up, but she should have been there more than an hour ago.

"She's just late, sometimes she's busy." He kept insisting. She'd never been late to pick him up before. Not once. Early, sometimes, but never late. And now she was over an hour late. He glanced up again, looking for any sign of her, and spotted someone else instead.

"Lara!" He shrieked, stopping in the middle of a circuit and hopping over the bench to run toward his older sister. He grabbed on to her and let her lift him up into a hug. It didn't take very long after that to convince the pre-school teachers to allow her to take him home, that she was his big sister.

Once in the car he bounced up and down in the back seat. "Lara? Laa_aaaaraaaa_?"

"Yes, Thomas?"

"Where's my mommy?"

He had learned early on that she wasn't anyone else's mommy. Just his.

"She's just out for a walk, Tommy." Lara gave him a smile. "How about we go get ice cream on the way home? I bet by the time we're done she'll be back."

Thomas's agreement was a cheer of, "Ice cream!"

It took them a good hour and a half to get the ice cream and finish it, she even let him have a double scoop. But when he got back the rooms he shared with her were still empty. Oh well, he was patient. He could wait. So he grabbed his favorite stuffed animal and climbed onto her bed. He read all his books and looked at the pictures in the ones he couldn't understand yet until he finally fell asleep, curled up on her bed with his books.

He didn't know how long he slept then, when he woke. He didn't go to pre-school, no one came to get him. There would be food when he woke up and sometimes he'd eat it and then go back to sleep, still waiting for his mother.

An empty bed greeted him every time he woke and finally, after he'd lost track of time, when he was hungry and lonely and tired and scared, he woke from a nightmare and he couldn't go back to sleep. Couldn't continue to be alone. So, grabbing his stuffed animal and hugging it to his chest, he climbed out of the bed and made his way to Lara's room. He only knocked for a moment before she answered the door in a silk robe, staring down at him.

"Oh, Thomas. Come in." Her voice was predatory-sweet but he was too tired and young to register it. "What's wrong, Tommy?"

Thomas lifted up his arms and stared up at her quietly until she picked him up, then wrapped his arms around her neck and laid his head on her shoulder. "When is my mom coming back?"

There was a long moment of silence before Lara answered, tone quiet and kind though her expression was anything but. "Oh, Thomas, sweetheart. She's not coming back. She didn't want to see you anymore, so she left. She left and she's not coming back. But that's okay, I'll take care of you. I'll take care of you now."

The way she said it, the way she made it sound so factual, combined with his sheer exhaustion… He couldn't think to argue, couldn't think right then to not believe her.

"Put me down."

"… Tommy?"

"Put me _down_."

She set him back on the floor and he gave her a brief hug before turning without another word and leaving the room. He managed not to cry until he was safely back in his mother's room, curled on her bed. And then he cried more than he ever would again.


End file.
